2010/2011 Armed Forces Salute Tickets

[Claire&TheBoys]

I asked this before and did get an answer- the one I was looking for- but now I'm getting concerned....

Does the military member have to purchase a ticket for themselves? My father-in-law is the military member. He does not plan to go into the parks at all. He wants to purchase four tickets for us and activate them. I understand that if he is purchasing 6 tickets one has to be for the military member. I am wondering if since he would only be getting 4 tickets if our plan will work.

The rules on the Disney site seem pretty specific:
No more than twelve (12) Disney 4-Day Military Promotional Tickets may be purchased, activated and/or used by any Eligible Service Member or spouse during the life of this promotion, and no Eligible Service Member or spouse may purchase, activate and/or use more than six (6) Disney 4-Day Military Promotional Tickets during any single week of the promotion. One (1) of the Disney 4-Day Military Promotional Tickets purchased on each occasion must be for use by the Eligible Service Member or spouse. This offer is for active or retired members of the U.S. military, including the National Guard, Reservists and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Has anyone successfully purchased and used military tickets without the services member purchasing one for him/herself?

We have successfully activated Military Salute tickets twice without activating one for myself (the spouse) or my husband (the servicemember). In January 2011, I activated one MS ticket for my sister without my husband present. In November 2011, my husband activated 2 MS tickets for my sister and her husband. Neither time did we have to buy or activate a ticket for ourselves.

The way I understand it, if the maximum of 6 tickets is being activated, one must be for the servicemember. Otherwise, up to 5 can be activated for family or friends of the servicemember.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

What is Miltary dinning?

You can add a dining plan to a Military-rate room at cost without a ticket purchase, as a room+dining package. There's no discount, but it frees you up to use the Military Salute tickets. Regular package rules apply.

 

[ssatterly]

You can add a dining plan to a Military-rate room at cost without a ticket purchase, as a room+dining package. There's no discount, but it frees you up to use the Military Salute tickets. Regular package rules apply.

So for example if a room was orgianlly as a deluxe $1384 room only you would get it at a 40% discount? That would make it say $831 plus the DDP which is about $828 for 3 for 3 night to ,ake it about $1649 for the room and dinning then add for 3 tickets at $138 each $414 for a grand total of $2073 give or take for a Deluxe resort for the dates in Oct I am looking at?..

That works out to just be a few dollars more than a value resort with a full priced full package...If I am doing to about right..Numbers maybe off some.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

So for example if a room was orgianlly as a deluxe $1384 room only you would get it at a 40% discount? That would make it say $831 plus the DDP which is about $828 for 3 for 3 night to ,ake it about $1649 for the room and dinning then add for 3 tickets at $138 each $414 for a grand total of $2073 give or take for a Deluxe resort for the dates in Oct I am looking at?..

That works out to just be a few dollars more than a value resort with a full priced full package...If I am doing to about right..Numbers maybe off some.

That sounds about right. We did a room+dine Military package at Coronado (35% discount) last May, 7 nights, plus DDP for 2 adults and 2 children for about $1700. (We had annual passes, so no tickets required.)

 

[ssatterly]

That sounds about right. We did a room+dine Military package at Coronado (35% discount) last May, 7 nights, plus DDP for 2 adults and 2 children for about $1700. (We had annual passes, so no tickets required.)

Awsome...I may still stick with the Mod resorts but if I can get a deluxe for about the same as I wouls have paid at full price for a mod why not.....Or just save the money and stay with the mod...Now once you book this thru disney can you make payments?

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Awsome...I may still stick with the Mod resorts but if I can get a deluxe for about the same as I wouls have paid at full price for a mod why not.....Or just save the money and stay with the mod...Now once you book this thru disney can you make payments?

Absolutely. It is the same as any other package: make a $200 deposit at time of booking and balance is due 45 days before arrival. You can make payments in the interim online or by phone.

We have taken advantage of the military-discount rooms several times since they started offering them in 2009. It's allowed us to visit WDW often in the last 2+ years and we've really enjoyed it. Have fun!

 

[CinderellaDreamer]

Thanks for your responses!

Just to clarify... Neither the military service member or his spouse are one of the 4. The 4 are family members.

Just got back and here was our experience. My mother-in-law (widow of a retired service member) purchased 5 tickets for us at her local base. We all went to Guest Relations at the Magic Kingdom where she showed her i.d. and activated the five tickets for our family. She did not have to purchase a ticket for herself. Once the tickets were activated, she left to go back to the house, and we went to the parks on our own.

I posted the same question awhile back about whether it reads that the service member MUST purchase a ticket or not. It sounded like they did, but I eventually had it explained as the same deal as last year, where only if the 6th ticket is purchased, it must be the service member or spouse. The service member does not need to purchase a ticket for themselves if they are not going to the parks, but can only purchase 5 tickets for others.

 

[mlong2004]

Does each person for whom the tickets are being purchased need to be present when they are activated? We are having people arrive at different times, but we would like to activate them all at once. Did they make you do the finger scan and all?

 

[CinderellaDreamer]

Does each person for whom the tickets are being purchased need to be present when they are activated? We are having people arrive at different times, but we would like to activate them all at once. Did they make you do the finger scan and all?

No finger scan or anything. I just wrote all of our names and birthdates down on a piece of paper. I don't know why we all had to be present. He didn't speak to the kids or even look at them. He didn't need to see our licenses or any i.d. Just the military i.d. and that list.

You can try to activate them without everyone present. Some people on this board report that they have had no problem with doing that. I bet they wouldn't notice if the entire party wasn't standing there. My husband left and went to the restroom. The kids were milling about all over the place.

Good luck!

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

Just got back and here was our experience. My mother-in-law (widow of a retired service member) purchased 5 tickets for us at her local base. We all went to Guest Relations at the Magic Kingdom where she showed her i.d. and activated the five tickets for our family. She did not have to purchase a ticket for herself. Once the tickets were activated, she left to go back to the house, and we went to the parks on our own.

I posted the same question awhile back about whether it reads that the service member MUST purchase a ticket or not. It sounded like they did, but I eventually had it explained as the same deal as last year, where only if the 6th ticket is purchased, it must be the service member or spouse. The service member does not need to purchase a ticket for themselves if they are not going to the parks, but can only purchase 5 tickets for others.

Perfect! Thanks for the info.

 

[becky11]

The only person that has to be present to purchase/activate vouchers is the person eligible to purchase the tickets. And I will once again confirm that a ticket DOES NOT HAVE to be purchased for the military member in order to get them for friends/family members.

I am an active duty military member. I have gone to Downtown Disney Guest Relations on two different occasions to buy ACTIVATED tickets for people that weren't with me (not even in the same state), with only their names, birthdates, and addresses. I then sent those tickets to that family (my sister and her family) so that she would have activated tickets in hand when she arrived at the park a few weeks later. I DID NOT need to be present when she used the tickets - I was over in Tampa (where I live) for 3 of the 4 days she was in the parks. I have seasonal passes and have no need whatsoever to purchase MS tickets for myself (or my DH or DD). This does limit the number of MS tickets I can purchase to 10 vs. 12 over the entire offer period (including 2010 when they first started this deal.)

The only 'drawback' to doing it this way is that I pay tax on the tickets I buy at DTD. This is countered by the fact that the tickets I purchase are already activated, so I don't need to be present when they are used at the parks the first time. The 'tickets' you get from most ITT offices, as well as Shades of Green, are vouchers, and when THOSE are activated at one of the park ticket windows/guest relations, the eligible person buying the tickets (service member/spouse/retiree/etc.) WILL need to be present to activate them so they can enter the park(s).

I have been happy to help out my family (and coming soon, a friend from high school) with the ability to enjoy a WDW vacation using my discount. I can only hope that they'll have something equally as great next year.

 

[CinderellaDreamer]

My mother-in-law did try to activate the tickets for us at the International Gateway of Epcot without us present back in September. She was told by two different cast members and a supervisor that we had to be present to activate them. When we came down last weekend, we all went to the Magic Kingdom Guest relations and had them activated with us all present. I wish that she had been able to do it without us. Would have saved her two trips.

But we had a nice dinner all together at Chef Mickey's after the ticket activation.

 

[appleorchard]

Too much variation between CMs on this one. My sister moved her trip up so we could all be there at the same time to activate the tickets. Bit of a pain, but better than arguing with the CMs and getting all stressed.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I have just reviewed the two-page long internal instructions related to the Armed Forces Salute tickets.

In both the Activation and Sales Process section is the phrase "Please have each Guest sign their ticket prior to leaving your window" which is an implication that each person should be present.

However, there is nothing specific which states that each Guest must be present or may not be present. (And, if the ticket is purchased at a window the Guest's name will print on the individual ticket.)

 

[Iris]

BTW, dependent children are allowed to have ID cards until they are 21 (which I'm grateful for, because my son didn't have medical insurance!!) My oldest son had a dependent ID card, joined the Army and had to turn it over because he got his AD ID card, and then had to be medically discharged at 20, and was able to get another dependent ID card that expired when he turned 21.

Dependent children may also have ID cards past the age of 21 if they are full time students. My daughter just got a new ID card because she was turning 21 last April and we needed a letter from the registrar office of her college, stating that she was a full time student and they also put her expected graduation date. Her new ID is valid until her graduation date in 2013.

Prior to her turning 21 we received a letter about it with an explanation of what we needed to do if she was still a full time student.

By the way...I was also told at one of the Epcot ticket windows that anyone with a military ID could activate the tickets, even dependents. I knew that this was incorrect but she was getting a little testy with me at that point anyway.

 

[RachelRuth]

Sorry if this has already been answered, I scanned the thread and didn't see anything.

My husband (active duty) and I are looking to take a trip this May. It's just the 2 of us and we want to go for 8 days.

We were thinking to get 4, 4 day tickets, so we would each have 2 to use consecutively. Can we do this (have 2 tickets for one person)? Can we activate them at the same time or would we have to activate the 2nd set later?

 

[appleorchard]

We did this last year, no problem.

 

[mlong2004]

Did I read correctly that the military tickets expire 14 days after they are activated? Is there a way to add a no expiration to that?

 

[luvmy2babies]

Did I read correctly that the military tickets expire 14 days after they are activated? Is there a way to add a no expiration to that?

From what I read, the last day to use Military Salute tickets is09/30/ 2012

 

[becky11]

Did I read correctly that the military tickets expire 14 days after they are activated? Is there a way to add a no expiration to that?

That is not correct. They are good until the offer period is over - 30 Sep 2012.